Much ado about a goldfinch

Last week the T&S (Trouble and Strife) and I went to Causeway Bay and took lunch in the Goldfinch Restaurant. Now the food was very good, excellent value, acceptable background music and most welcoming staff, who spoke good English. Highly recommended as Mr. Ronay might say but arguably not Mr. Winner. So what is wrong with the restaurant. Well, I give you Exhibits A and B.




I can see that you are already on the trail. The Goldfinch known to and loved by my European reader is a colourful little finch, that bears not a passing resemblance to the depicted bird. And as a stickler for accuracy I took the precautionary measure of checking how a Chinese Goldfinch might look. I turned to that much thumbed tome,
A Field Guide to the Birds of China by Mackinnon and Phillipps. Now apart from having a mildly pretentious spelling to her name (are 2 Ls and 2 Ps really necessary?) Ms Phillipps' illustrations have had mixed reviews. However I would contend that the Goldfinch is one of her finest and here therefore I take the liberty of reproducing her magnum opus.



Now then, doesn't that look like a goldfinch? Bottom left if you are at all confused and of a non-ornithological disposition. The Causeway Bay bird leaves me baffled. It has perhaps the air of a Glossy Starling but nary a goldfinch. Accordingly, until the situation remedies itself and this splendid restaurant adopts a new image, Mrs. Haa (for so her friends now call her) and I shall be boycotting the place. Indeed I feel a letter to the South China Morning Post coming on.

A walk in the park

I was very brave today. I picked up my camera again. So far, so good. Here are some results.






These are "Punchinello", "Lemon Pansy", "Common Five-ring" and a dragonfly I have to check.

Not the big lens of course but the small macro one. Still, as the trouble and strife said, acceptable. In fact the T&S came with me and we pottered about for 2 or more hours. We bumped into an old chap who is frequently there and he uses a small (non DSLR) camera that still produces excellent results. He showed me some of his butterfly images on the screen and I was blown away. Quite coincidentally just this morning I had read a review of the new version of his camera. It is a Lumix, Panasonic DMC FZ18. It got a strong write up. Between the review and the old chap the T&S had enough ammunition to frogmarch me off to buy one straight after lunch. "Only" HK$3800 and packed full of gadgety bits. So tonight and tomorrow I have to find out how it works. The bits that swayed me were the ability to shoot RAW and a Leica Elmarit lens. At a 1/10 of the cost of my DSLR body without lens its got to be a bargain.

Now as you have been very patient, here is a bonus picture from today. Wait a minute, no birds or moths!! Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. Do not adjust your set. Thank you.

Boris the Spider?

Who? Well yes it was actually. Here he (or she) is in all his (or her) glory. Just for the ladies. A real blue job.

Hello, hello, I'm back agane - Molesworth 2

2 weeks without resorting to the blog. I shall regale you today with an anecdote, taken from the most excellent British Wildlife, volume 18, number 6, August 2007, page 430, Reptiles and Amphibians. I am too lazy to retype the entire snippet but the essence of the story is this: a live (yes, live) Natterjack toad, Bufo calamita - a name guaranteed to make me chuckle in its own right - was discovered in a bag of prepared salad in Sainsburys in Huntingdon. This, I believe, was John Major's old constituency but I'm sure there is no connection. The origin of the salad was Portugal, where the Natty is commonly encountered. Per British Wildlife, herpetologists wishing to to try their luck should go for Sainsbury's "Herb Salad".

I confess I have moved the apostrophe from after the terminal S at the end of Sainsbury to before it. I am not sure whether it refers to the entire family, in which case I am wrong, or the single concept of the supermarket chain, in which case I am correct in my humble opinion. BW and I shall have to agree to differ. This really bugs me and therefore qualifies under "Birds,bugs etc.".

The rather natty (twice in one post) moth is Prooedema incisalis. I am especially fond of this moth as it is a) one of the first I caught in Hong Kong when I returned in 04 and b) rather easy to identify. I am currently in possession of a splendid small black and blue spider but it won't sit still to be photographed. I am hoping it will sleep at some stage but perhaps it and I share a sleep cycle in which case we are both going to dip on the experience. Check back to see if I am successful.

National Moth Night

Today is the Glorious Twelfth but last night was the inglorious eleventh. UK National Moth Night. So Roger Kendrick organised a Moth Night for HK. It followed the UK's tradition of rain, wind and occasional pestilence. The Four Horsemen looked at us and decided we had suffered enough. We did however see some nice bits and bobs. Here, for example, is a real Toad in the Hole:



And here is a Chinese gecko - what a cute little chappie:



Or how about this rather splendidly acrobatic Changeable lizard, Calotes versicolor, which steadfastly refused to move all evening:



And finally, a flutterby:



This is, I think, a Great mormon but I need to check. It was hanging on a bush, soaking wet at 9pm, totally oblivious to the barrage of flashguns.

So a testing evening for moths but highly productive anyway. Enjoy.

Toad in the hole

This chap was making an awful racket this morning. It rained last night, you see. And it hasn't done that in a while. So out came the toads. Positively ecstatic they were. He was also getting a tan in the rays of the moth trap lamp. A bit browned off when I shifted him.

Today's other contribution is an acorn cup. Yes, an acorn cup. I just saw it on the ground and liked it. So I brought it home and photographed it.



Last night we were invited to dinner at a very special home. The owners live in a secluded area with a garden that has grown over the 50+ years the family has owned it. The wildlife can be a bit hairy at times - cobras for example - and there were bats everywhere. But it was warm enough to sit outside and stargaze as well as have the meal on the terrace too. The owners want to make the entire area one for conservation, a most laudable aim. Shirley and I arrived home at midnight and our host's final words were still ringing in my ears: look out for the porcupines as you drive out! Wonderful.

Bugs I'm Alone

Did you get the excrutiating pun? Bugsy Malone? It has no connection to the photos, it just came to me in a flash. Sorry.

These 2 were in the biscuit tin this morning and very welcome too. Neither is rare or even uncommon but they do look good. The background should be the same colour but I used flash on the second one to lift it a little so the colour rendition is a bit different. I'm not very good with photoshop at adjusting for consistency. Something else to learn in retirement in 5 years time.